A series of 5-star hotels change hands Sofitel Plaza Hanoi and Duxton Saigon have been transferred to new owners at a time when many new hotel brands have opened in Hanoi and HCMC.    A report by CBRE, a real estate service provider, showed that Sofitel Plaza Hanoi will change its name to Pan Pacific in October 2016. The hotel, comprising 273 rooms and 56 serviced apartments, was opened in 1998 by the Ho Tay International Company. The new owner is Pan Pacific – PPHG from Singapore. Vietnamese BRG has successfully taken over Sedona Suites Hanoi in a deal worth $31.5 million. Sedona Suites, with 175 serviced apartments, villas and a club house opened in 1998 by Keppel Land from Singapore. Savills Vietnam, the broker, has announced the successful transfer transaction of Duxton Saigon at the price of $49 million. This is a 4-star hotel, with 191 luxury hotel rooms, 16 meeting rooms and other amenities, located on Nguyen Hue Boulevard in the business central district in HCMC. Sofitel Plaza Hanoi and Duxton Saigon have been transferred to new owners at a time when many new hotel brands have opened in Hanoi and HCMC.  The old owner of Duxton Saigon is Low Keng Huat, while the new owner is an anonymous investor from Singapore. In early June, Kumho Asiana Plaza owned by Kumho Asiana Group was sold to Mapletree from Singapore at $107 million. This comprises a 5-star hotel, apartment block and apartments for lease. The luxury hotel hosted US President Barack Obama stayed during his official visit to Vietnam last May. Prior to that, Liberty JSC transferred Novotal Saigon Center to Sai Gon Green View (SGGV Investment) at $46.7 million. Meanwhile, other hotel brands are expected to appear in the market in the time to come. Wyndham Legend Halong will be the first 5-star hotel in Vietnam belonging to Wyndham Group’s chain with 217 rooms. Wyndham now has  7,200 hotels with more than 600,000 rooms in 66 countries which bear 15 different brands. According to Savills, also a real estate service provider, 33 more hotels will join the market from the third quarter of 2016. However, there is only information about 15 projects expected to provide 4,700 hotel rooms. In HCMC, one 4-star hotel and 4 3-star hotels will join the market, while 3 3-star hotels will be closed. The total supply would be about 15,400 rooms from 121 projects. From the third quarter of 2016 to 2018, more than 3,100 hotel rooms from 14 projects are expected to be available in the market. In related news, a report on the hotel service sector released by Grant Thornton on July 6 showed that the sharp surge in the number of domestic travelers in 2015 (57 million travelers, up by 50 percent) helped the tourism & hotel sector gain $15 billion in turnover in the year. Duy Anh